Early Galaxy Detected by AstroSat

Early Galaxy Detected by AstroSat

Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-III – Science and technology; Achievements of Indians in Science and technology 

In News:

• One of the earliest galaxies called AUDFs01 has been discovered using AstroSat.
• Discovered by: A team of Scientists from the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune.
• The team comprises scientists from India, Switzerland, France, USA, Japan and Netherlands.

Key takeaways

• The galaxy is located in the Hubble Extreme Deep field, 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth.
• The galaxy was discovered using UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) on Astrosat.
• AstroSat detected Extreme Ultraviolet light from the galaxy.

Important value additions

AstroSat

• It is a multi-wavelength astronomy mission on an IRS-class (Indian Remote Sensing-Class) satellite in a 650-km, near-equatorial orbit.
• Launched by: Indian launch vehicle PSLV by ISRO.
• It is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission. 
• Aim: To study celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously with its five unique X-ray and ultraviolet telescopes working in tandem.
• AstroSat mission enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.